When it is worth checking
The situations worth checking, and what we look at in each one.
These are the situations travellers ask about. Actual entitlement follows from the law applicable to the flight and the circumstances of the case, so every file turns on its own facts.
Flight cancellation
A cancelled flight may give rise to entitlement. What matters includes how much notice you were given, whether an alternative flight was offered and on what terms, and how far it sat from the original schedule.
A cancellation replaced by another flight can still be relevant.
Significant delay
The check weighs how long the disruption lasted, at what point it happened, and what caused it. Different routes weigh these differently, so it is worth keeping the times at both ends of the flight.
A short departure delay that did not affect arrival is usually not relevant.
Denied boarding
You arrived on time with a valid ticket and were not allowed to board, most often because the flight was overbooked. What you were offered at the gate is also considered.
Refusal on security, documentation or health grounds works differently.
Missed connection
Where a delay on the first leg caused you to miss the connection, the shape of the itinerary matters, not just the single leg. Whether both flights sat on one booking matters too.
Entirely separate bookings are looked at differently.
Flight brought forward
A flight moved significantly earlier can count much like a cancellation, because it forces the passenger to change plans at short notice.
A minor change of time is usually not enough.
Extraordinary circumstances
Airlines routinely argue that the disruption was outside their control. That argument is judged on its facts, and not every event falls within it.
So we look at what actually happened on that day and on that flight, rather than accepting the standard wording an airline sends out.
When entitlement may not arise
- Where the disruption was not significant in practice
- Where sufficient advance notice of cancellation was given and a reasonable alternative offered
- Where the disruption stems from circumstances outside the airline's control that could not have been avoided
- Where the flight falls outside the scope of the relevant law
Even in these cases a check costs nothing, so it is worth looking before writing it off.